CDO Magazine’s first New York City CDO Financial Forum, held March 25 at the New York Marriott Downtown, brought together the city’s leading executives driving data, AI, cybersecurity, risk, and enterprise transformation in the finance sector for a day of bold ideas and forward-looking dialogue.

With over 100 leaders and 30+ expert speakers, the program brought to life the theme “Wall Street Reloaded: Same Street. Different Playbook.” through a dynamic mix of keynotes, interactive panels, and focused discussions that sustained momentum and insight throughout. Executives from major commercial banks, payments and asset management companies, financial crime and compliance firms, and a federal agency challenged perspectives, shared real-world experiences, and co-created ideas, turning the forum into a highly engaging and impactful exchange.

Two keynote sessions stood out:

• Offense. Defense. Winning at Scale: A New CDO Playbook for Wall Street: James Massa, JPMorganChase Sr. Executive Director, Architecture & Engineering
• Own the Ecosystem: The New Power Play on Wall Street: Dr. Tiffany Perkins-Munn, JPMorganChase Head, Business Execution & Policy Open Banking

Reflecting on the forum, panel speaker Diego de Aragao, Citi SVP, Balance Sheet Executive Decision Support, says, “The caliber and experience of the speakers, the relevance of the well-curated partner solutions providers, and deep engagement of the audience made for a very enriching and insightful day of learnings and connections. 

“CDO Magazine went above and beyond in its inaugural NYC CDO Financial Forum by bringing under the same roof the top data science, analytics and AI leaders, practitioners, and solutions providers deploying state-of-the-art capabilities in the financial services industry,” Aragao adds.

Panelist Christopher Di Giola, PGIM VP, Head, Product Data Governance, concurs. He says, “The CDO Magazine Forum sparks truly energizing conversations around data governance and AI, highlighting how they are actively shaping the future of our industry. Without Gerri bringing us all together, we’d never know what we are missing on this journey we are all taking together.” 

Panel speaker Sami Huovilainen, Citi Managing Director, Head, Next Gen Analytics, US Personal Bank, says he found it to be exceptionally well-managed, energizing, and profoundly informative. “It highlighted not just the rapid advancements in AI transforming financial services, but also the critical role of collaborative thought leadership in navigating this exciting, AI-powered future. Truly a forum that sparks inspiration and actionable insights.” 

For speaker Silvana Miller, Mastercard VP, Data & AI Strategy, what stood out most was the quality of the executive exchange in the room. She notes, “It was made up of senior leaders having candid, grounded conversations about how data, AI, and risk are actually reshaping decisionmaking inside financial institutions. This wasn’t theory. It was leaders comparing real playbooks, in real-time.”

Panelist Sung-Ho Ahn, DTCC MD, Deputy General Auditor, Clearing & Securities Services, Risk & Data, says the CDO Magazine New York CDO Financial Forum lived up to its billing. It really was about (information) quality, not quantity. He points outs, “The Forum not only ‘reloaded Wall Street,’ it restacked and reset the discussion by bringing the true doers of the Data and AI domains into one room for frank and unfiltered conversations about where things are headed, what challenges we face as an industry, and yet what great potential is out there to be explored to turn ideas into products, and how to properly measure the ROI.”

“At first, I was worried that the energy level might subside by lunchtime, but it actually felt like people’s willingness to open up increased as we all got more and more comfortable,” Ahn adds.

According to panel speaker Xihua (Sabrina) Chen, AML RightSource Head, North America Financial Crime Analytics, “This is by far the only conference that not only stands out for the amazing content and speakers, but also stands out for its incredible host, well-crafted introduction lines and just so much fun overall.”

Gerri Caveness, CDO Magazine Community Director, highlights, “Some rooms carry more weight than others… and this was absolutely one of them! What made this forum stand out wasn’t just the caliber of the speakers or the strength of the audience. It was the alignment from everyone who attended. Senior leaders willing to share real perspectives, peers ready to engage at a high level, and strategic partners committed to backing the event. This wasn’t just an all-day conference, it was an all-day conversation.”

Sharing his perspective, Paige Leidig, Tigergraph Chief Marketing Officer, says, “It was a great event. The room, the conversations, and the engagement were exactly what we were hoping for. Also, in our conversations following our panel session, we got a really good signal that indeed financial crime has moved to networks, and leaders are leaning in.”

Summing it up, Tom Beedy, Couchbase Strategic Field Marketing Officer, says, “The CDO Magazine New York CDO Financial Forum was an outstanding showcase of community building. The event seamlessly blended high-caliber content with a truly collaborative environment, bringing together the brightest AI and data minds from global financial institutions and the vendor community alike. We found the engagement levels and coordination to be top-tier…a must-attend for anyone driving the future of data.”

Special thanks to Ataccama, Cyera, Monte Carlo, TigerGraph, Qlik, Quest, Aerospike, Couchbase, and NayaOne for making this event a success.

Executives speaking at the CDO Magazine New York CDO Financial Forum included:

Sung-Ho Ahn, DTCC MD, Deputy General Auditor, Clearing & Securities Services, Risk & Data; Christopher Armao, JPMorganChase Managing Director, Firmwide Head, Data Strategy; Radhika Bajpai, Russell Investments Chief Information Security Officer; Sarita Bakst, TD Chief Data Officer; Sol Benjamin, JPMorganChase VP, Semantic Intelligence; Rohit Chauhan, former Mastercard EVP, Artificial Intelligence-Fraud Solutions; Xihua (Sabrina) Chen, AML RightSource Head, North America Financial Crime Analytics; Christopher Di Giola, PGIM VP, Head, Product Data Governance; Diego de Aragao, Citi SVP, Balance Sheet Executive Decision Support; Matthew Holtman, JPMorganChase Executive Director; Sami Huovilainen, Citi Managing Director, Head, Next Generation Analytics US Personal Banking; Cat Ihonvbere, JPMorganChase Executive Director, Connected Commerce Controls Analytics; Arun Maheshwari, Morgan Stanley Executive Director, Head, Model Risk Control Legal & Compliance; James Massa, JPMorganChase Sr. Executive Director, Architecture & Engineering; Silvana Miller, Mastercard VP, Data & AI Strategy; Charles Morris, Truist SVP, Agentic Enterprise Strategy Leader; Carlo Nastasi, Internal Revenue Service Special Agent, Criminal Investigations; Monil Pandya, Citi Managing Director; Dr. Tiffany Perkins-Munn, JPMorganChase Head, Business Execution & Policy Open Banking; Andrew Reiskind, Mastercard Chief Data Officer; Wilmarie Rios, Synchrony Financial VP, Analytics, Chief Data Office; Thomas Rizzo, Lazard Chief Architect; Namrata Shah, AWS Hero Distinguished Thought Leader; Vinod Shenoy, Morgan Stanley Executive Director, Conversational AI; Raman Tallamraju, Vanguard Sr. Director & Head, Enterprise Data Architecture & Engineering; Jason Bishop, Qlik AI Lead, North America; Larry Hunt, Ataccama Field Chief Data Officer; Rob Petra, Cyera Data Security & AI Governance Officer; Will Robins, Monte Carlo VP, Product; Rajeev Shrivastava, TigerGraph CEO; Sue Laine, Quest Software Field Chief Technology Officer; Gerri Caveness, CDO Magazine Community Director; and Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine SVP, Sales.